Simple rhymes and warm images will invite young children to nod off quickly.
A series of loving images, mostly juxtapositions of animals and their surroundings, add up to a pleasing bedtime book.
Starting off a little awkwardly with “If you are the egg, I am the hen,” the text soon pivots to what becomes a pattern, with one statement per double-page spread: “If you are the bear, I am the den,” and then lines like “If you are the squirrel, I am the tree,” and “If you are the traveler, I am the sea.” The flat, naïve illustrations of the animals are rendered in a muted but attractive palette of pinks, reds, greens, and browns and are usually offset by a secondary object in a bluish gray. Small chicks inhabit each picture, supplying continuity. Vaguely reminiscent of The Runaway Bunny in its quiet rhythms, the text continues: “If you are the writer, I am the nook. / If you are the reader, I am the book.” These lines are illustrated with a skunk scrivening in a little gray space under a flight of stairs and an elephant cozily reading a gray book while sitting in a patterned green easy chair with its pink toes resting on a matching ottoman. The title is highlighted in the last two spreads, as a red fox sleeps amid the clouds and then a gray, blue, and white galaxy of stars unfolds, as the text reads: “And, if you are the dreamer… / I am the stars / holding your dreams, / whatever they are.”
Simple rhymes and warm images will invite young children to nod off quickly. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951836-27-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cameron + Company
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Let these crayons go back into their box.
The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree.
A Christmas edition of the beloved alphabet book.
The story starts off nearly identically to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989), written by John Archambault and the late Bill Martin Jr, with the letters A, B, and C deciding to meet in the branches of a tree. This time, they’re attempting to scale a Christmas tree, not a coconut tree, and the letters are strung together like garland. A, B, and C are joined by the other letters, and of course they all “slip, slop, topple, plop!” right down the tree. At the bottom, they discover an assortment of gifts, all in a variety of shapes. As a team, the letters and presents organize themselves to get back up on the Christmas tree and get a star to the top. Holiday iterations of favorite tales often fall flat, but this take succeeds. The gifts are an easy way to reinforce another preschool concept—shapes—and the text uses just enough of the original to be familiar. The rhyming works, sticking to the cadence of the source material. The illustrations pay homage to the late Lois Ehlert’s, featuring the same bold block letters, though they lack some of the whimsy and personality of the original. Otherwise, everything is similarly brightly colored and simply drawn. Those familiar with the classic will be drawn to this one, but newcomers can enjoy it on its own.
A successful swap from coconut tree to Christmas tree. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665954761
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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